Debre tabor university

faculty of technology
department of mechanical engineering
DESIGN AND MODIFICATION OF CEREAL CROP HARVESTING MACHINE

prepared by id no

BINIYAM ABEBE 0477/06

BIRUK TAYE 0509/06
BIRUK ABERA 0505/06
AYEHU SISAY 0360/06
KIBROM AYENBERIHAN 0642/05

advisor: mr. ramu

co : mr. yideg
June 2010
 OUTLINE
1. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
1.1. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
1.2. OBJECTIVE
1.3. SCOPE
1.4. SIGNIFICANCE
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
3. METHOD AND MATERIAL
4. Design calculation
5. Conclusion
6. Recommendation
 BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
 Agriculture can define as the science, art, and business of cultivating soil, producing crops,
and raising livestock or farming.
 It accounts for 46.7% of the nation’s GDP (gross domestic product), 83.9% of exports.
 One of the most agricultural production in our country is cereal crop such as teff, wheat,
barley, corn, sorghum and maize etc.
 Those cereal crops are indigenous to the country, and are a fundamental part of the culture,
tradition, and food security of the people.
 One of important activities of crop cultivation is harvesting.
 Since harvesting is last stage in farming which takes maximum time of farmer among all
farming process.
 Currently a majority number of our farmer mainly use traditional cutter method (by using
sickle or machied) to accomplish harvesting.
 CON’T…
 So this was very tedious and time consuming, ergonomically unjustified and requires large
numbers of labor. But it’s very cheap among all other harvesting equipment and used for
small hectares.
 Today is a day of technology and our country is the way of growth and transformation, so
need of farm mechanization is very important.
 So design of this cereal crop harvesting machine will solve all problems listed in above.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
 It well known that majority number of small scale farmer mainly use traditional cutter method (by
using sickle or machied) for harvest cereal crops.

 This traditional harvesting operation requires 80% of total labor force and this method has been
found tedious and time consuming, ergonomically unjustified and it requires large numbers of
labor.
 However, there are many types’ mechanized agricultural machineries which existed in
the market such as mechanized crop cutter, and lawn tractors. But those machinery are
may not fulfill the capital and operational cost criteria of farmers .
So this makes great influence on our nation and farmer who livelihood in agricultural
activities in two way such as direct and indirect.
 Direct way: productivity and income of farmer will be reduces.
 Indirect way: GDP (gross domestic product) and economy level of country will be
decline.
 OBJECTIVE
 General objective
The main objective of this project is to design and modify manually operated cereal crop
harvesting machine.
 Specific objective
The specific objective of this project is
 To design and modify each component of machine.
 To design harvesting mechanism of machine.
 To select appropriate material each component.
 To analysis each component of machine by using ANSYS software.
 Scope of project
The scope of this project is design arrangement of different sections and design of different types of
components from designing each component machine up to making proto type. This can be written as
SIGNIFICANCE
 After manufacture of this machine, the machine could harvest different cereal crops with a
minimum time and effectively.
 Also decrease dependence of workers
 In general this project bring a great significance to our country in terms of transferring low scale
agricultural system to modern and mechanization agricultural system.
LIMITATION
 This machine only harvest a few cereal such us wheat and barley.
 It’s difficult to harvest cereal crops i.e. maize, sorghum.
 The machine doesn’t have threshing unit
 LITERATURE REVIEW

 Cereal Crop cutting equipment mainly available in small scale farmers mostly in the
developing country like Ethiopia which has does not received an adequate improvement
for several years (sickle or “Mached”) [1], continue to be the traditional tools used to
harvest crops . In the past, variety of the sickle have involved, initially of iron and later
steel.

Fig sickle
 This great diversity of sickle type across many cultures can be divide in to smooth or
serrated blade, both of which can be used for cutting either green grasses or cereal
crops using slightly different techniques.

 In the past, some crop harvester with low power rating were developed, but because
of their low field capacity, high cost and other problems, they were usually not
considered suitable alternatives to the manual methods.

1. Persson (1993) designed, built and tested a rotary counter shear mower. It consisted
of two concentric counter-rotating discs. Cutting speed with this type of rotors is less
than other type of rotary disc cutters. Field experiments on alfalfa showed that the
power consumption was less than 1.6 kW/m of cutting width. The rotary counter shear
mower worked satisfactory in fine crops, tangled crops and crops mixed with residue
 CON’T…

2. Jeremy, in 2005 designed and fabricated solar charged cutter machine. The machine was
dependent on weather since the battery would be charged using solar panel. The common
drawback was that the engine runs slowly and the production cost was high for an average
individual to purchase.

3. Koori, (2010) designed an operated engine powered crop cutter. The machine is fitted
with horizontal blade attached to a vertical shaft. However, this machine requires gasoline
fuel to work on field and this makes farmer to expend extra cost.
 CONT’…
 Based on literature survey we had developed cereal crop harvester but is not satisfactory.
 In previous design, the machine does not conveying mechanism for cutter blade, due to this there
was maximum harvesting losses can be occurred during field operation. So this makes similar
problem to previous work which mentioned in literature review.
 The main difference between our previous design (human power) and the machine which
described in literature survey (gasoline) is the source power and the mechanism which used to
convert input energy to rotational energy.
 However, the team use their knowledge and skill to find solution and to make modification on
previous design work.
CON’T...
Modifications
 By design conveyer mechanism which
mounted in the side of machine which use
rear wheel power in order to harvest a
cereal crops effectively.
 For this setup it requires two pulleys and
rubber belt for completing conveying
mechanism to transfer power from one
pulley to another.
 METHOD AND MATERIAL
In order to design this crop cutter, we apply the following methodologies.
Data collection method
1. Primary data
 Direct Observation: by observing the traditional method of harvesting crop.
 From employee of the company (Adama Agricultural Manufacturing Industry)
2. Secondary data
 From previous design work
 From book and journals
Data analysis method
The data can be collect from the literature review and analysis by using different techniques
such as:
Finite element method by using ANSYS software
Auto cad software or Catia
Check raw data from specification prior to perform our analysis.
Concept generation for harvester
Concept generation which is when a product development team comes up with the idea, is the most critical step in the
engineering design process. A concept can be defined as both an “approximate description of the technology, working
principles, and form of the product.

Based on this classification we develop different concepts

Concept combination table

Power source Convert input power in to rotation Power transfer Out power apply to the cutter

Human Gear + Chain drive Rotation (1)

Wheel

Engine Motor Chain Reciprocating (2)

Belt Rolling
Concept 1
 Since in our first design we already analyzed (selected) concepts on energy type, energy
conversion method, energy transfer method and energy which applied to cutter blade.
 In this machine the energy were developed by means of worker when operator push the
machine with the handle then wheels starts rotating and by help of chain drive and bevel
gar the power would be transferred to the cutter blade.
 The energy which applied to cutter blade is rotational motion and perpendicular to
against the crops which harvested. However, this rotational motion of cutter blade could
not enough to get the crop easily due to lack of collecting fork.
 Concept 2

 When the worker push machine with the handle then wheels starts
rotating. This rotation of wheels is transmitted to the shaft. On this
shaft the larger sprocket is mounted having chain drive with
smaller sprocket of second shaft and due to rotation of first shaft
the rotation transfer to second shaft.

 On second shaft the bevel gear is attached to both the ends then
with the help of bearing and this rotation is transmitted to vertical
shaft having pulley.

 Due to the teeth ratio of bevel gears, rotation is maintaining and

multiplied. By the help of belt drive and pulley the cutter bar make
reciprocating motion by means of sider crank mechanism and the
crop get harvested.
 Design calculation
 Power required to drive the machine
2×𝜋×𝑁×𝑇
Pr = (HP) = 1.54 Hp = 207 watt
4500
 Power developed by chain drive
m
push force kgf ×speed of machine( )
s
Pd = = 0.166 HP = 124.13 watt
75
 Force required to drive the machine = 294 N
Shaft : The solid shaft is mounted on driving wheel for purpose of
transmitting power to chain drive system.
Material : By considering strength, wear resistance, machine
ability, availability and low cost we selected carbon steel CS 1040.
 By using Maximum shear stress theory, the equivalent twisting
moment
Can be given as 𝑇𝑒 = 𝑀2 + 𝑇 2
𝜋
𝑇𝑒 = × 𝜏 × 𝑑3
16
d = 14 mm
CONT.…..
Chain drive : The lager sprocket is mounted on rear shaft for purpose
of transmitting power to front shaft by help of chain.
Material: In order to avoid slipping condition, corrosion, cost of
maintenance and occupy space we are used steel roller chain.
 Power transmitted by chain is given by
Tangential force acting on driving force ×speed of chain
P=
Factor of safety×service factor
= 83.14 Watt
Bevel gear : The gear is mounted between tapper ball bearing and
against shoulder of shaft and the pinion is mounted on the end of shaft
being supported by ball bearing. This bevel gear was attached to at both
ends of shaft to convert horizontal rotational motion to vertical rotational
motion (90 degree).
Material: AISI 1080 mild steel because of it is good strength and we can
get easily.
𝑍𝐺
Transmission ratio, V.R = =2
𝑍𝑃
 By using Maximum shear stress theory, the equivalent twisting moment
Can be given as 𝑇𝑒 = 𝑀2 + 𝑇 2
𝜋
𝑇𝑒 = × 𝜏 × 𝑑3
16
d = 14 mmm
 CONT….

Bearing size selection :Two bearings are fixed in the bushing

provided at the two ends of the frame in order to support the
eccentric shaft on which the wheels would be attach.
 Four bearings could be fix at front end of frame to support
pinion and gear shafts.
Material:
 Radial load capacity on bearing
Fc = Fe × Ks
At point b
Fc = 1972.5 N
At point d
Fc = 395.25N
Single deep groove ball
CONT……
Belt drive and Pulley: The belt which used for this machine was
mounted on at the end of pinion gear shaft and this used for
transmitting power from pinion gear shaft to crank pulley for
cutting purpose by means of slider crank mechanism.
Material: cast iron pulley
N1 D2
=
N2 D1
N2 D1 50mm
= = = 1.25
N1 D2 40mm
Velocity of driving pulley
𝜋×𝑑1×𝑁1
𝑉1 = = 2.87 m/s
60
Velocity of driven pulley
𝜋×𝑑2×𝑁2
𝑉2 =
60
= 5.76 m/s
 CONT…..
Cutter blade : Cutting mechanism consists of two cutting blades
namely sliding cutter blade and stationary cutter blade. Stationary
cutter blades are directly welded to frame. Sliding cutter blades
allows to sliding over stationary blade plate, so that cutting action
takes place.
Force delivered by slider crank =134 N
Force requiring by cutting blade to shear the cereal crop is given
by.
F min = Fn + Fs + Fd = 45.74 N
The speed of cutter blade can be obtained by using
𝑆 ×𝑁
𝑣𝑘 = = 1.8 m/s
30
 COST ANALYSIS

N Item Unit Quanti Unit cost Total cost

 To make prototype a given machine or equipment its
o ty
1 Sprocket Pcs 2 500 1000 necessary to consider machine cost. Machine cost is the cost
which spend on manufacturing process such us grinding,
2 Ball bearing Pcs 12 150 1800
drilling and welding process as well as finishing process.
3 Flat sheet Square 2 800 1600
metal meter
 The maintenance cost as well as other miscellaneous cost
4 Rectangular Mete 5 200 1000 also considered while making product.
Mild steel
5 Key Psc 4 5 20  Total coast of machine is 18,059.6 Birr.

5 Nut and bolt Pcs 4 3 12

6 Bevel gear Pcs 2 200 400

(used)

Overall cost 5832.ETB

Conclusion
The need of this project is to design, modify and fabricate this cereal crop harvesting machine is to minimize the scarcity of
agriculture machinery for small scale farmer in Ethiopia and to improve and modify the machine which manufacture during
internship program.
This new modified harvesting machine operates without any use of power equipment’s such as motors and it is fully operated
by human power
Recommendation
With reference to the result the following are recommendation here by made.
i. The power developed by machine is minimum, so the power should be increase to harvest other cereals crops
(i.e. maize, sorghum)
ii. The height of individual cereals are different, so the cutter blade should be adjustable based on the height of
crops.
All goals and objective of this project work is achieved. However, while doing our project work
We did not get sufficient material from university.
So that, we recommended that in the future carrier the university should supply sufficient material for all student.